FNM @ Majestix

Black Friday saw Jack

Andrew

Kate

and I at Majestix for Friday Night Magic.

I went 1-2 playing BU, I could not keep up with RW or GW Agro deck:

Andrew went 1-2 with a third round draw. He was playing Mono Red.

Kate had a three color deck and went 1-2 as well.

Suprisingly, Jack, how has been doing great this year, went 0-3 playing BG, I think.

We did get some OK cards & everyone went home with a promo card. It was a fun Friday night.

Death Saves

So this week in D&D Encounters we had a player drop to negative 10 Hit Points--yes, I am that much of a Bad Ass DM!

I am not sure exactly what the death & dying rules are for D&D Next? In 4E, Negative bloodied was dead dead--is that true in D&D Next? 

If a player is negative hit points do they still make death saves during their turn in Next?

Any tips on how this works would be helpful.

Actual Play Legacy of the Crystal Shard--D&D Encounters S16 S2

A Drow, Frog, and Gnome walk across a rooftop....Legacy of the Crystal Shard--D&D Encounters S16 S2

My second week DM'ing went a lot more smoothly--there were only 5 players on the night before Thanksgiving, which made it a lot easier. 

I had prepared for 12 at the table again, so I did not necessarily have the minute roll play details that I may have wanted, but I did have the cinimatic battle scenes set up--bar fight, street fight, etc.--and they went fairly smoothly.

Thor was playing his Death Cleric.

Brandon is still playing his dwarf but will likely be changing to a mage for net session.

Jack was there playing a Gnome Rogue named Ratatouille--some of his best RP ever happened this week when he released the barbarian prisoner. Jeff was new & played the NPC.

Eric was there sans Sarah, who was at her moms birthday--Eric's Druid the Druid is fantastic.

Scott is playing Scar who is basically Drizzt.

The module has a ton of background stuff, which I will likely never use--I plan to develop my own themes for this season, but likely not formalize them until week three.

 The Pathfinder Crit & Fumble decks are bringing a lot of joy to the table.

I used a mix match of custom drawn map & WotC Maps for the various encounters tonight.

Jack was on fire with Three Crits--likely an all time session high for him!

Minmaxing in D&D Next

I have a player at my table who is playing a death cleric. He is using a scythe as a polearm which we have agreed is doing a d10. He has some class feature that allows him to do an extra d8 three times a day for the entire combat. When he hits a target he is able to make a second swift attack. Finally, he has some kind of polearm feat that gives him threatening reach.

So while my other players are doing like a d6 per round this guy is often doing 2d10+2d8+2 which just seems completely broken.

My first question is am I missing something--I am fairly new to D&D Next and some of this character optimization may not be legal--can anyone validate that what this player is doing is actually possible RAW?

My second question is, does D&D Next support 'system mastery' in the same was a 3.0? Do 'advanced' players have significantly more powerful PC's simply because of rule mastery? 

I remember in 3.0 building encounters to just shut down certain PC's & prevent them from doing their 'tricks', I did not find I had to do that as much in 4.0 and I am curious if we are returning to those types of encounters?

Here is video of Thor's PC in action